Hamartia
by IchBinAufKurs
Summary: After Monsters Inc., Boo's brother is visited by a monster from Fear Co., a company that still gets their energy through screams. The same tragedy ensues, but with new characters, new reactions, and new circumstances.
1. Theres a reason monsters hide in closets

**Just because it makes sense doesn't mean it's true.**

* * *

The girl Sulley nicknamed "Boo" was sitting in her room, drawing a picture of the blue monster as her brother walked in. He looked at it as she drew some extra features, adding some pink spots over the monster's body. He looked around her room. There were no more drawings of the purple one she'd drawn since she started having nightmares; instead, the walls were covered with drawings of the same monster she was drawing at the moment.

Come to think of it, she didn't wake up the rest of the family in the middle of the night anymore, and that could only mean one thing. She didn't have her nightmares anymore, and it might be pure coincidence, but they stopped just around the time she started drawing this blue monster instead. He looked back at the drawing and noticed she'd started to draw herself next to him, holding his hand.

Puzzled, he left the room and walked into the kitchen where their mother was.

He saw her sitting on the table reading the newspaper as he said, "Mom, have you noticed Mary's drawings lately?"

"What about them?" She asked as she flipped a page on the newspaper.

"Isn't it weird that she stopped drawing the purple monster after her nightmares stopped and started drawing that friendly blue one instead?"

"Well, what can I say? She has a creative imagination."

He couldn't argue with that, but he remained skeptical and changed the topic.

"She never draws things like castles or ponies, she only draws things she sees, simple things like us or what happened the day before... Doesn't that say anything?"

"Well, she might've seen them in her nightmares."

"Okay, then why is she drawing the blue one as the good guy?"

"Maybe he is a good guy."

"A Monster? Seriously?"

"You're thinking too much about this. Finish your homework and go to sleep."

"I already finished my homework."

"Well, then brush your teeth and go to sleep."

He flipped the switch on the restroom, grabbed his toothbrush and put some toothpaste on it.

He looked at himself in the mirror as he started brushing his teeth and began to question if maybe the monsters were actually coming to her room. He realized how absurd it sounded, but being the determined person he was, he stayed in his sister's room and waited for them to show up.

* * *

His parents saw him sleeping on the floor, his head resting on the edge of the bed, looking towards the closet. They stepped into the room, careful not to wake them up and carried him to his room, tucked him in to bed and placed a kiss on his forehead.

* * *

He heard a strange noise wake him up. Frightened, he looked around the room and tried to find the source, but it stopped before he located it.

He tought back to something his mother once told him. _You've got to be brave and face your fears. Take it from me, your biggest fears never come true. My father told me that, at first I didn't believe him, but things eventually worked themselves out. So, I imagine it's quite true, for many of us._ He wanted to overcome his fear and he felt he had to do this not just for himself, but for his sister too. He felt a bit of courage and placed his foot down on the floor as he got off the bed.

He neared his closet because that's where the noise seemed to be coming from. The closer he got, the stronger the noise got, but strangely enough, it didn't seem to be coming from the closet anymore, but from his entire room. It was bouncing around the walls, leaving him unable to pin-point where the noise was coming from. The horror overwhelmed him, so he went back to bed and hoped that whatever the noise was, it would not hurt him.

He slipped underneath the sheets and tried to ignore the noise so that he could go back to sleep, hoping that once he woke up the noise will be gone. He closed his eyes as he buried himself under the covers.

Out of nowhere, the noise stopped. He peeked out of the covers, looked around and sighed, knowing rightfully well that whatever it was, it was gone now. He could finally sleep.

Suddenly, he felt something touch his left shoulder.

"Mom? Is that you?" He asked as he opened his eyes and looked to his left. His bedroom door didn't look like it had been opened.

Then, he felt the same thing brush against his right shoulder. He quickly turned his head to the right. The room was looming with darkness, not a single light in his bedroom. He saw a silhouette of something that had two large, curved horns on each side of its head.

"Too bad kid, I'm not your mommy!" The monster said and then roared.

His roar echoed across the room. The silhouette became clearer and he was finally able to see something that looked like a big monster with two sharp, small fangs, along with very gruesome face. His fear manifested itself in the form of a scream.

His scream eventually turned into sobs. He kept crying as he saw the monster near his closet as say, "Huh! You're such a crybaby. And here I thought you were actually brave enough to get near the closet. Thanks for the scream though." The monster quickly opened the closet door and left.

Just then, he heard his room's door being opened. His mother quickly dashed towards him while his father turned on the light.

"Oh, honey. What's the matter?" His mom hugged him and tried to calm him down. "Are you okay?" His mom touched his face & upper body to make sure her son was alright.

"It's okay, mom. I'm alright. You don't need to worry." The boy said as he stopped crying and looked at his mom.

"Are you really sure? This is the first time you've woken us up."

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm sorry I woke you up so late. It was just a nightmare." He said reassuringly.

"Aww, come here." His mom hugged him even tighter. "If you feel scared, you're always welcome to sleep in our room." His mom said as she released her hug and stood up to leave.

"Thanks for the offer mom." He said.

His mom turned off the light and walked out. The boy got ready to go to sleep again, but he still couldn't let go of the image he saw earlier.

_Was it really a nightmare? It felt so real._

* * *

"Heh! That was an easy scare!" Johnny Worthington told his assistant. "Too easy, I must say. I even had fun with the kid for a little bit. He wanted to prove that he was brave enough to reach the closet, but he was to scared to actually do it. Bwahahahaha!"

"'C'mon Johnny! You're supposed to work here, not play with the kids!" His assistant replied, "And on that note, you should scare him right away before he can do anything! You don't want to make Monstropolis go through chaos again, do you? Last time Monsters Inc. was the suspect, and now you want to make Fear Co. a suspect?"

"Don't mention 'Monsters Inc' in front of me, alright? That company is a disgrace! How can they call themselves monsters when their job is to make kids laugh?"

"Yeah, but they're our company's competition. With James P. Sullivan as their CEO and Mike Wazowski as their top employee, we're pretty much falling behind I'm afraid-" the monster stops as Johnny interrupts him.

"I don't want to hear any of this anymore. If you want to complain about our energy gathering methods you can go directly to Fear Co's CEO, not me. If you ask me, we can still catch up if we work faster and if every scarer in Fear Co. can get a full tank for every kid. Commitment and skill, that's all it takes." Johnny said proudly.

"Uh huh… And who's been playing with the children while on duty?" The monster shot back at Johnny.

Johnny got close to the monster, making a gruesome face and whispered in a lower tone directly to his face, "Listen very carefully to what I'm about to say, Hughes. You are a scarer's assistant. Your job is to make sure your scarer does his scaring tirelessly. Instead of whining about some gibberish, why don't you put yourself to good use and get me another door? Hmmmm?!"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes! You're right! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I will get another door right away!" The monster shouted in panic as he rushed to the door's machine.

Another monster had been listening in on their conversation. He had just gotten back from his lunch break and was waiting for his assistant to arrive so he could finally do his job. He shook his head. That type of thinking made him sick. He wished he could leave Fear Co. and join Monsters Inc, but he just wasn't any good at making jokes. All in all, he was just happy Fear Co. was still getting energy through screams because that meant he had a job.

"Oh, hey Devlin. Sorry I'm late. Let me get you that door."

Unlike Monsters Inc., Fear Co. didn't have the doors matched up with each monster, the assignation was random, but it was adjusted so that the doors that showed up would have kids that were asleep. Yet, it was still a little surprising to have the same door Worthington just used.

After hearing what Worthington had to say, he felt sympathy for the kid. He didn't want to scare him. He wanted to try to make him laugh, but he was no good at that, so he decided that he was going to make it quick and painless.

He opened the door and stepped in. He tried to blend in his bear figure with some of the toys on the room, but the second he looked towards the bed, he noticed the kid wasn't there.

He slowly got up and went towards the door.

"Hey uh.. the kid is not in his bedroom. Are you sure the schedule is correct?" He asked.

"Sorry uhh.. let me see it again... Yup, it is correct. No mistake here." He answered.

_Maybe he did go to his parents, that's good. _Devlin thought.

"Well, he's not there. You should send the door ba-." He was interrupted by an announcement over the speakers.

"All employees on the scare floor need to report to the meeting room. No exceptions. Turn all the doors to hibernate mode. Once you are cleared, proceed to the meeting room! Thank you!"

Devlin heard Johnny complaining again, "Stupid meeting again. C'mon Hughes, lets go and meet that sucker again." Johnny groaned.

"Shhhhh… You should not say that so casually Johnny." Hughes warned him.

"Bah! What do I care. Hurry up!" Johnny replied as he watched Hughes put the door on hibernate mode.

* * *

When they come back both Devlin and his assistant see the red light indicating the door had been left activated. It appears his assistant had made a mistake and put the door in standby mode instead of hibernate mode. While everybody was still distracted by what the meeting was about, Devlin's assistant noticed his mistake and hurried to the door so that he can pretend he had just activated it.

Nobody seemed to have noticed and everything seemed to be running smoothly until Johnny noticed the kid.

Panic ensued. Everybody freaked out, but nobody seemed to have pressed the emergency button.

Devlin felt somewhat responsible for the kid and put it in a cardboard box while no one was looking. He rushed his way out of Fear Co. along with everybody else.

* * *

**Author's Note: Granted, this story has OCs. I try to stay away from those stories as much as possible, so to make up for it, I've created a tie-in on this one so that it might've actually taken place sometime after Monsters Inc. And just for fun, if you review and point out a flaw, I will read and review 3 of your chapters. Also, big thanks to O'Growlahan who helped with some of the dialogue. **


	2. The world we knew as children

**Warm milk will get cool on you, but it's getting warmer now.**

* * *

He took out his room keys and opened the door to his apartment. He remained calm and tried to act as if there were only work-related things in the box. He placed his keys on top of some divorce & custody papers on a desk near the entrance. His kid came out from his room as he heard the front door close.

"Dad? You're home early. You finished your work already?" His son asked in surprise.

"Uh.. Yeah, you could say that. How was your day today? Did you have fun?" Devlin asked, trying to move his attention away from what he was trying to hide.

"Like always. Nothing out of ordinary. What's that behind your back, Dad?" He asked as he saw his dad trying to hide something. He saw the box moving and said, "Oh! Is it the new Megacorp pet I've been wanting?! Let me see! Let me see!" He asked, jumping up and down in excitement.

"They're just things from the office, paperwork and things like that."

"Oh c'mon, Dad! I wanna see it! You don't need to surprise me. It's not like it's my birthday or anything. Is it cute?" He was still jumping excitedly and trying to get a hold of the box.

"No. They're really just things from the office. Would you excuse your Dad here for a moment? I need to take this to my room." Devlin said, gripping the box tightly as he moved away from his son.

"You're so mean, Dad! Mom wouldn't act like this if she were you!"

Upon hearing him mention his mom, Devlin stopped. He didn't like getting compared to his 'wife'. Furthermore, he didn't want to make things worse since things were bad enough as they were. For his son's sake, he turned back, got down to his level and put the box on the floor.

"Alright, I'm sorry. You can see what's inside the box. Go ahead, open it." Devlin said as he put his hand on top of his son's head, watching his expression change to an excited one.

"Thanks, Dad!" he said as he opened the box's cover.

He peeked inside and saw something he could not believe.

"Ahhhh! A human!" The little monster screamed and backed away in fear. His father tried to calm him down.

"It's okay, it's okay. Calm down." Devlin said, picking up his son and hugging him.

"Listen to your Dad, okay. This one doesn't do anything. You can touch him if you want. He's just like you. Go on." Devlin put on a cheery smile.

The human kid got out of the box and stood still in front of it. Even though he believed his dad, he still hesitated to touch him. But eventually, he decided to touch him out of curiosity.

"See? He's just as cute as you are. Well, you are the cutest one, of course! Come here!" Devlin said as he grabbed his son and swung him around in his grasp.

But then he remembered what he'd heard about humans and now he was the one that started to freak out. He didn't want to take any chances, so he decided to shower his son, but making sure not to make a scene, he asked.

"Did you took your evening shower already?"

"Not yet."

"Alright then, let's go!" Devlin put a fake smile as not to make his son worry about anything.

As he showered his son, the boy found his way in. He gave a tiny high pitched scream as he jumped into the water. Luckily all the lights were off or his scream, although low, would've made them pop.

It was a small bath tub, so the human's presence made the water rise a little more.

"Ok now, you're getting your clothes all wet." Devlin said, grabbing the boy and taking him out of the tub.

Devlin slowly and awkwardly removed the human's clothes, seeing the human genitals for the first time. They weren't that different after all. He wondered if he was the only one to have ever done this.

He put the human back in the bath tub as it noticed the monster's tail moving, creating a movement in the water. He reached out and held it for a while.

He let them play in there for a little bit, leaving them alone while he went online to look for any possible incidents where this has happened to other monsters and what their punishments were, but failed to find anyone that actually got caught.

He only found an article from when a human girl was caught on a camera at Harryhausen's. He read through several of the comments and one caught his attention. It said, "I heard a girl's scream or laugh coming from my neighbor's room, and soon afterwards, all my living room lights shone very brightly and then they popped! I'm not sure this was the girl I heard though!"

Devlin typed 'Massive lights blow out in apartment' and browsed through the search results for a while. He soon realized that the chances of finding what he was looking for were growing slim. Just then, he heard the sound of a notification and saw a picture of his wife with her new boyfriend. It had a short caption on it, 'My new & lovely partner'. His ears flatten, but perk up once he heard his kid calling him.

"Dad! Dad! Come over here! Hurry!" His son shouted.

He ran over.

"He talks!"

Devlin stood silently near the doorstep.

"How does it feel to have a tail?" The human asked.

"I don't know. I've never really thought about it... How does it feel to have no fur? Don't you get cold?"

"Well sometimes, that's why we have clothes." The boy said.

It was then that Devlin noticed the human was shaking a little, so he dashed towards the bathroom and picked up the boy's clothes, but sadly, they were all soaking wet. Since he & his son had fur, they didn't have any kind of clothes for the boy to wear. He didn't have any other choice but to let them dry up and leave the boy naked.

Once out of the shower things finally seemed to calm down; their fur was at that almost dry point and the world seemed saturnine. Devlin leaned back against the wall and sighed, slowly lowering himself down to the floor. He saw his son playing with the human. It was cute, almost magical.

The bear's kid and the human soon got tired, so in the name of body heat, soft fur, and smooth skin, they slept huddled close together.

Devlin saw them sleep on his bed as he fell asleep on the floor.

* * *

When morning came, he heard some knocking on the door.

"Oh, uh.. just a minute!"

He stood on his feet as he neared the bed, he saw the human and his son cuddling close together. He almost didn't want to wake them up, but he knew he had to.

"Wake up, sleepyheads, wake up."

"Wha-?"

"Take your friend and go hide." Devlin whispered to his son.

"Hey, let's play hide without the seeking." he said, grabbing the human's arm.

"Huh? What?" the boy responded.

"Just follow me."

They both ran out and hid in the same spot.

They heard some distant talking, but weren't able to make it out.

"Can you hear what they're talking about?" the cub asked.

"Nope. I can't hear anything." the boy answered.

* * *

"We haven't even been to trial yet." Devlin said.

"The court determined that they are to spend equal amount of time with each parent until the trial takes place. I suggest to take it easy, the longer the goodbye, the harder it is for the child."

"Come here, boy. It's time to go see your Mother." One of the officers called out as they went looking for him.

Devlin started to panic. _Maybe they'll see the human kid._

"Mommy?" The cub feels excited and gets out from his hiding spot, leaving the human alone.

"Mom!?" The cub called as he dashed towards the living room.

"Ah… There you are. Sorry, your mom's not here. She is waiting at her house." the officer explained.

"Let's go see your mother, okay?" Another officer offered his hand and the cub took it.

"Don't worry. Everything is going to be okay." Devlin said, trying to hide his sadness. "It is the same old stuff you have been going through before. We will see each other soon, alright? Be a good monster, okay. Behave yourself when your mother is around, promise?"

"I promise, Dad. Tell my new friend that I'll miss him too."

Devlin had completely forgotten about the human boy. He forgot to tell his son that he can't say anything about him to others. It was such a big relief that his son only mentioned the him as his 'new friend', and not 'human friend'.

"Sure, son. I'll tell him that." Devlin said, giving a short reply.

"What kind of new friend?" the officer asked, turning to Devlin.

"Just a monster kid he met at the playground a few days ago. He's around the same age as him and he's a boy too." Devlin answered calmly.

"I will inform her Mother regarding this as well. It is in the agreement that both parties need to know the well-being of this child. Including friends this child has made." The officer explained.

Hearing what the officer said, he started to get panic again, but does his best to remain calm and focus. He tries to make an excuse to tell his son what's in his mind, but he figures it wouldn't be too much trouble to do what he was about to do.

"Ummmm… Officer? Sorry, but.. can I have a private moment with my son for a little bit? Please?" Devlin begged.

"Yeah, sure. I don't see why not. Take your time. I will be waiting outside your apartment's door when you're ready." The officer said, leaving the room.

"What is it, Dad?" his son asked.

"Listen, I don't think you should mention the human boy to anyone, okay? Just say, you met a new friend and that he was a cub just like you. Can you do that for me?"

"Sure, Dad. I understand. I even screamed the first time I saw him. I don't know how mom would react if I told her about this." his son replied.

"That's my boy. Go on, now. Your mom is waiting for you." Devlin said.

He followed him to the door of the apartment. His neighbors were opening their doors and staring at him.

"Bye, Dad! I promise I will be a good monster!" His son shouted at him while the officer held his hand and the image of his son became smaller and smaller.

Devlin simply waved as he tried to hold back his tears.

Once they were gone, Devlin closed the door and started sobbing. The human child was right there, holding one of the cub's toys as he saw Devlin crying. He reaches for him and pulls him into a big hug.

He knew how these things turned out. The female almost always won the custody battle. The argument was usually that if the child stayed with the father, he had to stay home while the father worked. While, the female could stay at home with the child, while her new "husband" can go work.

He felt the kid hug him back and they stayed like that for a moment.

He started having crazy ideas about having the human kid replace his son, but then he realized what he was doing. He was preventing the child from being with his family. He saw the hypocrisy of his actions.

The next morning he took the same box to work. His assistant asked him what it was for and he replied,

"I'm gonna try to make it laugh."

Once he opened the box, he set him free.

The human gave an excited cry, which filled his can.

And Fear Co. never found out how, but the card for that door mysteriously went missing.

* * *

**Author's Note: Special thanks to O'Growlahan. Without his help, this story wouldn't've been the same.**


End file.
